Sew Crafty Chemist: FINISHED! New Look 6261; The Lace Dress

Sunday, January 25, 2015

FINISHED! New Look 6261; The Lace Dress

Ah but wait!!!! GIVEAWAY WINNERS!!!!

THANK YOU for all of the positive messages on my sewing/blogging anniversary post! I really love interacting with everyone in the sewing community!! All of you awesome ladies really enhance what is a gratifying ~~way of life~~ hobby! :-D

:Drumroll:

Prize A: A free PDF pattern from In House Patterns
Accordion3 is the winner!!!!
Send me your email address and pattern preference and I will get it to Alexandra.

Prize B: A 3 pack of McCall's/Vogue patterns
Carol G is the winner!!!
Send me your size preferences for V9032, M7093 and M6996 and your mailing address.

Prize C: A $15 gift certificate to Fabricmartfabrics.com
Myra is the winner!!!
Send me your email address and you will get the gc info directly from FabricMart

I gotta tell you; random.org REALLY wanted Shams to win! Haha! Her number came up more than once! :)

My email address is sewcraftychemist --at-- gmail --dot-- com

******************************

Nearly a year ago, when the spring New Look patterns were released, I was all aflutter over 6261. I muslined it(!) because I wanted to make it to wear to a fundraising event. But I never did.

Browsing online, I came across this Tadashi Shoji dress:

I decided I had to have a black lace/nude lined dress!!!!

((Apparently this pattern was completely inspired by Shoji??))

Anyhow, I remembered the nude (latte) ponte in my stash and set out to get lace. I very, VERY rarely buy fabric from Hancock or JoAnn (ok, I will probably never buy fabric from JA again...) but I didn't have time to order anything and didn't feel like driving to SR Harris.

There were several nice laces at Hancock and initially I was going to go with a stretch lace and lo and behold I found the beautiful, ever-so-slightly-metallic lace print.

And then the lady at the cutting counter said it was $2.39/yard.

WHAAAAA?!?!!? SOLD! I bought all 4.25 or so yards.

And THEN it occurred to me that I had THAT pattern! And THEN I remembered that I had already muslined it!

I mean, the stars were truly aligning in favor of this dress.

I really wanted the bands :( But they were fabric strips cut on the bias and topstitched with 8(!) rows, each 1/4" apart. There's no way I had time for all that.

I REALLY liked the look of 1.25" grosgrain ribbon that I had in stash (I have an enormous ribbon stash from my defunct Etsy store!) but I did not have enough to do the bands. I settled for 3/4" satin ribbon. I like it though...Jazzes up the front a little bit.

I did a decent job fitting my major swayback and look at how nicely the back neckline is lying!!

Do NOT look at my tummy pooch. ;-)

I wasn't sure but yes, my right dart is really a bit further than it should be.

Hard to mark that lace...

But my invisible zipper! <3

If you're afraid of invisible zippers; don't be!

Get an invisible zipper foot and it becomes the easiest zipper to install!

I was going to have sleeves; leaving them unlined. But hubby thought it looked odd because the "nude" of the dress did not "match" my darker "nude" arms beneath the sleeves.

Did I give you enough quotes??

I said, eh. that's fine. I don't need to be setting lace sleeves ANYWAY. And I used storebought bias binding. But knowing I wanted no visible stitching, I hand stitched them in place.

yes. Another thing I said I hated doing which I now relish. Go 'head, shake your collective heads and say "told ya so" :) I did a really quick catch stitch on the facing.

Other notes:
I sewed a size 16 with 14 neckline. I didn't need an FBA. Go figure.
I did a 1/2" narrow shoulder adjustment and 3/4" swayback adjustment.
I removed about 3/4" from the back neckline tapering to nothing about mid-way between neck and waist.
I used lightweight fusible on the facing and interfaced the zipper area.

wait.

I have seen Wash Away Wonder Tape talked about but WHYYYYY did no one tell me to stop what I was doing and immediately get some in my stash like at that instant? Why?!?! That stuff is AWESOME!

I probably used WAY too much on this project but OhEmGee I did not have to do a million, zillion miles of hand basting! WIN!

I entered this in the Bargainista Fashionista contest on PR. I wasn't going to but since I completed this dress for just around $10 per contest rules (~$18 if you include zipper, pattern and bits and bobs) and the Tadashi dress is $228; figured I may as well.

When I slipped the dress on, it felt SO good. I love being able to create everyday basics, but times like THIS is when I am really all warm & fuzzy about my ability to sew.

The outtake:

I got a ton of compliments and a crazy amount of double takes. Okay guys, do I really look that bad Monday-Friday?!?! Hahahaha

As styled (Mirror selfie--sorry!). I wore pantyhose too. I abhor pantyhose. Especially control top. ::insert violent looking emoji:: but I waited til the last minute and had to go to Target.